Maybe We Can Run Away
by Anita2131
Summary: Marriage law fic! Or at least my take on it ;) Maybe people go against unfair laws, instead of accepting them. Maybe they have someone they can't afford to lose. HHr! Rated T for occasional swearing.


****A/N: New story, yay! Still working on Taken, don't worry, I just finally found time to write. When? Social Studies class ;)****

****The teacher makes us use our laptops, I write every time he goes off-topic. He goes off topic A LOT.****

****This is my twist on a marriage fic. Enjoy.****

****Disclaimer: The wonderful and fabulous JK Rowling owns Harry Potter, I don't.****

It was a cold November evening as a cloaked figure trekked across the graveyard in Godric's Hollow. It was eerily empty, which just made the young man's task a whole lot easier. He walked at a brisk pace, as he was adamant not to waste a single second more than necessary, and to tell the truth, the graveyard was slightly unsettling. He knew where he was going and did not hesitate for a single moment, he did not have to rush his task. Reaching his destination, the young man kneeled down before two gravestones, pulling the hood of his cloak to reveal a mop of messy black hair hiding a slowly fading scar. The young man looked up and stared at the gravestones.

"Mum, dad, I know you're here." he whispered, the wind carrying his words away.

"I needed to visit you one last time, I'm afraid it's too risky to ever come back here after this. I know I'm running on borrowed time, but I need to tell you what happened. You probably already know, as you're always watching over me, but I need to get this off my chest."

He took a deep breath, then began his tale.

"It all started a few years after the war, when Hermione Granger came to my apartment for the first time in months and brought very important news…"

_Day 14, 21:38_

_Harry's Apartment, Undisclosed Location_

It all started when Harry was quite rudely awoken from his nap by a very irritated bushy-haired witch in ministry robes.

"Bloody hell Hermione! What was that for?" exclaimed the cranky wizard, no one like an _Aguamenti _to the face.

"That was for not being able to open the door." Hermione stated, quickly drying him off with a swish of her wand.

"Fine, I guess you have a point. So, what brings you here?"

Hermione huffed in annoyance.

"Honestly Harry, have you been hiding under a rock?"

"If by rock you mean my pile of blankets here then yes."

Hermione cracked a smile at that, momentarily forgetting her troubles.

"So, what did I miss?"

She rolled her eyes at him before picking up the newspaper she brought with her, and held the front page open right in front of him.

His eyes slowly and comically widened at the title of the front page story.

"NEW MARRIAGE LAW TO BE PUT IN PLACE BY MINISTER KINGSLEY"

"Oh, for fuck's sake!"

Usually, Hermione would chide him for his language, but now was not the time.

"This is barbaric, they can't just force us into marriage with someone, they can't take away our free will, this is-"

"Everything I said at the ministry meeting, in less polite terms." Hermione finished.

Harry sat down on the couch, still reeling in from the shock.

"Well fuck, I feel like crawling back under my rock."

Hermione joined him on the couch, looking utterly exhausted.

"Got any room for one more under that rock?"

"You'd be surprised," he said, giving her a small awkward laugh.

"The broadcast is on in a couple of minutes on the Wizarding Wireless, do you mind if I use your radio?"

"Go ahead. Wait, what broadcast?"

"They're going to be announcing the new rules for the marriage law."

Hermione stood up and walked to the cupboard, grabbing the dusty old radio off the shelf.

"Here we go" she muttered, blowing the dust away. She set down the radio on the small coffee table, and turned it to the right frequency.

"-Minister of Magic, here to talk to you about a new legislation which was just passed through the Wizengamot. It is the temporary repopulation act 10-13-"

"10-13? What does that mean?" asked Harry, still outraged at the new law.

"It lasts for ten year, and it's the thirteenth law of this type that has been proposed, now hush."

"-into effect two weeks from now. The new legislation states that all witches and wizards between the ages of eighteen and fifty-four will be partnered up with a strong magical match, and must produce at least five magical children during the ten year period. For ten years all fertile witches and wizards that meet the age requirements will be required to live in a compartment in the repopulation center in Scotland. Due to concerns from psychological experts however, all children will be taken away at birth to keep them from potentially dysfunctional env-"

"What? How could they, how can they just rip a child away from his mother's arms?" asked Harry.

"They're desperate, really desperate." replied Hermione, face blank.

"This applies to all children born in the repopulation center, now we'll be taking a short break." ended Kingsley.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" screamed Hermione.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, eyes wide.

"I-i didn't want to say this because it's too early to tell and me and Ron have just broken up and I didn't want to tell him yet, but now. Harry, I'm pregnant."

"No, no, this can't happen right now."

"They're going to take it away Harry," she said, tears streaming down her face, "the moment this baby is born it's going to be ripped straight from my arms and taken away."

"We can't let this happen Hermione, we won't," said Harry.

"How? How Harry? It's mandatory, all who don't show up are put into Azkaban, it's go or die."

"Then we'll run away, for good."

_Day 1, 23:13_

_Graveyard, Godric's Hollow_

"That was the day we made a plan, we had no idea how or when we were going to run away, or who we'd bring with us, we just needed to find a couple of sane people. So we decided we'd apparate to some of our friend's houses, bringing the radio along with us to keep in touch."

_Day 14, 21:59_

_The Rookery, Ottery St Catchpole_

After Harry and Ginny broke up two years ago, it was messy, he'd lot almost all contact with the Weasleys, except for Ron, but that was over weeks ago, after Ron and Hermione broke off their engagement. They wouldn't want to run away with them, they'd probably want to turn them it.

So they decided they'd visit Luna first, sure she might be a bit weird, but she was saner than most magical folks.

As they walked up the path to her house, the radio started up again.

"And we are back, yes with the timeline for the law going into effect. Nothing is required of you today, but tomorrow all witches and wizards must go to St. Mungo's for a full medical evaluation. All witches and wizard will then be required to pack their belongings and move into the repopulation center. Onc-"

Harry stepped up and knocked on the door.

"Luna, are you there?" Harry shouted.

"Harry this is important, I'm trying to listen." said Hermione, frowning.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly

They waited for a while before Luna finally came out.

"Hello Harry, Hermione. What are you two doing here?"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, had she really not heard the news?

"Um, Luna, didn't you hear about the new law?"

She gave them a small smile.

"Of course I did, it looks like the ministry had a Nargle infestation judging from those crazy ideas of theirs."

For once Hermione agreed with her.

"It sure seemed like there were Nargles in that Wizengamot chamber." she muttered grumpily.

"So, you never did give me an answer."

"Oh, we're running away." Harry replied simply.

"When?" she asked

"We don't know yet, we're trying to see if anyone wants to join."

"Would you mind keeping it down, I'm trying to listen," chided Hermione, motioning towards the radio.

"Sorry," he said, then turned to Luna, "so, are you in?"

"Of course I'm in, what can I do to help?"

"Well, ask around to see if anyone wants to join, but be careful, we can't have the ministry catch on to us," at her nod, he added, "oh and be sure to tell everyone who's interested to meet us at my apartment in five hours."

"My apartment," corrected Hermione, her ear still glued to the radio.

"Why yours?"

"Harry, when was the last time you cleaned your apartment well enough to have guests over?"

Harry blushed at her remark, in reality neither of them could remember a time when Harry's apartment _was _clean.

"Fine then," he said, "meet at Hermione's apartment in five hours."

"Harry that's around three in the morning." Hermione remarked.

"It's not like we'll be getting any sleep.

_Day 14, 22:14_

_Hermione's Apartment, 2347 Diagon Alley_

Harry apparated straight into Hermione's living room, usually he would apparate outside the front door, but she was already inside, he didn't need to. Her living room was as neat and tidy as ever, but still had a very homey feel to it. Some things had changed since he had last been here, some pictures of Hermione and Ron had been taken down, save for some taken when they were still in their first years of Hogwarts. The kettle whistled loudly, and he heard Hermione's footsteps in the kitchen.

She came out a moment later, with a pot of coffee in her hand. She gently set it down at the table, taking a seat on her brown sofa, then snuck under the blanket that was placed on it. Harry joined her, taking comfort in the silence that was occasionally broken by footsteps on the floor of the apartment above them.

"They can't take it away from me Harry." Hermione whispered softly

"We won't let them," he comforted her, "we'll run away to an empty field with plenty of flowers where the sun shines in the summer, and the snow falls in the winter, and everyone will be happier."

She cracked a small smile at that. "I'd like that," she whispered, "we need to plan Harry, we need something to tell them when they come over."

He thought for a while, then finally spoke up.

"There was this place, I once thought I needed an escape from the wizarding world, so I did some research and found this one place. It's in Scotland, around 500 meters away from Little Wood, in Aberdeenshire*. An open field, no one lives nearby, I think we can ward it well enough so they can't find us."

Hermione just stared at him, mouth open, eyes like saucers.

"Harry, you're a genius!"

_Day 13, 3:17_

_Hermione's Apartment, 2347 Diagon Alley_

At around three in the morning, Luna had Floo-called Hermione's apartment to tell them that a group of people would be flooing in soon. Soon, after, Luna stepped out of the fireplace, looking a little tired but nonetheless smiling.

One after one, witches and wizards stepped out of the floo. First was Neville Longbottom, his wife Hannah by his side. Then came in Seamus Finnigan, along with Susan Bones. Then came in a stream of people: Padma and Parvati Patil, Anthony Goldstein, Dean Thomas, and an unfamiliar brown-haired man in a blue cloak.

"Harry, Hermione," called Luna, "this is Rolf Scamander, a friend of mine," she said, gesturing towards the man.

"Nice to meet you," said Harry, extending his hand, "Harry Potter."

Rolf gave a small chuckle, "everyone knows who you are."

Soon all the guests sat down in the living room, and Hermione, seeing as most of them were quite tired, headed into the kitchen to make some more coffee.

Now that everyone was here, Harry soon started speaking. He made a passionate speech about the injustice of the marriage law, that the ministry was forcing them into units, taking their own children away from them, how it was beyond cruel. He explained how the law was applied to every baby born inside the facility, and Hannah, who was heavily pregnant at the time, burst into tears. By the time he was done everyone was convinced. They had to run away, and they had to do it soon.

Hermione gave them a basic timeline. Today was their last real day of freedom, the next day a medical examination would take place, anyone deemed fit would be sent into the center immediately. However, the law only went into effect in thirteen days, after that, not being in the center would be a crime, punishable by up to ten years in Azkaban. The ministry no longer used dementors, they came up with a curse to reproduce their effects. It was safer, but still as cruel. On the day the law goes into effect, they have to be gone, hidden, no going back. They had thirteen days to say their goodbyes and get their affairs in order. Each person was given a bag with an undetectable extension charm to pack anything they wanted to bring with them, then they disbanded with a promise to meet back here on the last day.

_Day 1, 23:21_

_Graveyard, Godric's Hollow_

"That day we all made a promise, we were all in this together, we could depend on each other. But there was one person I couldn't leave without, and I was afraid I might have to."

****TBC****

*Do you know how long it took me to find a single empty field, I was on Google Maps for a little less than an hour, I don't even think the area I saw is actually empty, there are some people living nearby, at least it looks like it but oh my goodness, no more. No more google maps searching.

Only for you guys ;)


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